?In The Shipyard, Onetti comes close to an almost perfect equilibrium, to an artistic economy that seems rather miraculous.” ?Mario BenedettiReturning to the dreamed-of city of Santa María, getting a job in Petrus’s shipyard, and winning the heart of Petrus’s daughter is, for Larsen, the last opportunity to find his purpose. However, the attempt soon becomes a meticulous farse: there is nothing to do in a stagnant, ruined shipyard, nor is it possible to will oneself to love. Even though life precludes it, Larsen continues undaunted in his role, as though he doesn’t want to look at the reality of a world en route to extinction, or perhaps because pretending is the only possible way out of madness.Julio Cortázar said about Juan Carlos Onetti: ?the greatest Latin American novelist.”